


Shattered

by R_J_Hatchet



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Based on MHTU, Cannon is More of a Guideline, Gen, How Do I Tag, Humor, I Don't Even Know, Monster Hunters, New Monsters From Other MH Games, No Angst, Only Fluff and Sarcasm, Original Characters Will Have Appearances, POV First Person, Sarcasm, Strong Female Characters, Swearing, Tags May Change, characters too, romance maybe?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 07:23:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13631469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_J_Hatchet/pseuds/R_J_Hatchet
Summary: Rowan Haidar knows she will be the best Hunter ever, she just needs a starting point to go from. A mission to get her name out there to the rest of the world. But she can't just start with your average fetch quest, no, she needs something a little bigger.“Help! Island in danger! Live in Hunter requested, travel to location for more details!”It seemed like a gift dropped into her lap, the mission perfect for her needs!But no one mentioned Elder Dragons, natural disasters, more fetch quests than you could shake a stick at, having to socialize with the towns folk, farming, the Guild Marm eating all her snacks, and the worst:Learning how to swim.





	Shattered

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, figured I'd give you the warnings now: None of this is really planned. I am doing this for stress relief and to better my own writing skills. That being said, I also have no Beta reader as of yet.Don't expect consistent updates, though I will be trying my very best to stay on top of them. 
> 
> Also, I'm gonna give you a warning that Arabic language will be used in this story, I will be putting the translations for them at the bottom, but there will not be too many as to make it unreadable. 
> 
> The reason being, that the Arabic language is fantastic, and I always associated Loc Lac with that culture. And I always found it weird that other than a few Characters speaking Japanese, no other locations had their own languages. So this is my fix for that. 
> 
> Rowan is fluent in both Common (the language universally used) as well as LocLan (Arabic) due to her upbringing.
> 
> Enjoy the story!

My life changed because of an _earthquake_.

I’m not trying to brag, but not everyone can say that a natural disaster made them pick up a weapon and slay giant beasts for living. Actually, there is a very select few that actually would ever be able to ever say such a thing.

The number is more than you would initially assume though.

 I can’t actually say I was there for the earthquake it’s self though, seeing as it happened on a deserted island while I was located in the middle of a desert. And, the last time I checked, it was pretty rare to find an island in the middle of the desert.

I was currently on a boat heading for the “Deserted Island”, currently freezing to death and feeling sicker than a poisoned Bnahabra. I will openly admit to not having the best sea legs, and unfortunately you have to cross a little bit of water to reach an island, in this case it was an entire ocean. There isn’t much water to be found when you’re surrounded by sand, so it wasn’t like I could practice for the trip. I would have much preferred to take an air ship to the island, but apparently the island didn’t get much traffic that way, much less have the docking bay necessary for them.

I leaned over the rail of the ship, yet again tossing up what was left of my earlier brunch. I almost regretted taking this job. At this point the sailors had stopped feeling sad for me, and had just taken it as an average day event after the fourth day of travel.

We crested a wave, and as the spray reached up towards me, I felt my skin turn an even paler green as I swooped away from it, leaning back away from the rails. I gulped back the nausea, and tried to remind myself what I was doing in the middle of this godforsaken ocean heading for the middle of nowhere.

_“Help! Island in danger! Live in Hunter requested, travel to location for more details!”_

Oh, right. That was why.

My dream job finally got it’s opening, and I jumped at it. I only realized now why my Maadar would always tell me “Look before you leap little cub.” I regret not taking her advice in this situation.

Above my head the call for land was announced and I dragged myself away from the ledge heading to secure the small amount of supplies I took with me. I only brought a small amount of supplies, enough to get me started and comfortable.  Which means I brought a chest filled with supplies, and a few trinkets to remember Loc Lac and all who I left at it by. Even that completely drained my account. The trip wasn’t exactly free to say the least, and all my hope rested on this job being ‘the one’.

Please Great Dragons, let it be the one.

I swung my pack up onto my tanned shoulder before heading back on deck when I felt the waves subside slightly. I watched as we pulled into the quaint little port town, that if my mind remembered correctly, was called Moga Village. I couldn’t see much till we got closer, and then I could see the damage. Pots and wares were tossed around, fish splashed across the decks making up most of the flooring to the town. Everything looked out of place and wrecked, I only hoped it was because of the earthquakes, and didn’t look like this normally. I looked like there was a town meeting going on, and it was a safe bet that the job lister was in the middle of that huddle.

 I watched anxiously as the sailors looped ropes over the posts nearby to attach us to port, as both I and my shaking body could not wait to get onto dry land. This ocean motion stuff was not my forte, and I was pretty sure it never would be. As soon as we were situated I booked it off the boat, and as I was running down the plank I quickly noted one very specific thing.

This was not dry land, in fact, as I made my way into the middle of the little village, it still felt as if I was on that damn boat. Most of the damn Village was on water! What the hell, who ever came up with this probably should have taken some structural lessons, cause all I could find that was stopping the place from floating away were a few well-placed ropes and planks. I wasn’t even sure how it hadn’t managed to get washed away.

As I made my way towards the crowd, people parted for me to get to the middle. Now, I’m not sure if they were doing it because I looked like I would puke on them any minute, or if it’s cause I looked like a bad ass. I was hoping for bad ass personally.

Getting to the middle of the crowd I met up with the village elder, the one who sent out the request. Apparently one of the quakes had just happened again, and after being assured that it usually never happened twice in one day(oh good, only once every few days, what _wonderful_ news.), we got down to business.

He was pretty sure that the quakes were caused by a monster called the Lagiacrus. Apparently it was some big bad ass thing that nearly all the villagers feared to take on, much less talk about. And from the murmurs in the nearby crowd, it might as well be made of lightning and death. The death part seemed to be murmur from the Fish Mongress, apparently it attacked the fishing fleet, and they have yet come back… though pieces of drift wood had. It seemed fishing was Moga’s main source of income and export, so those being out of business was… bad, to say the least. She wasn’t exactly sad about it, more so pissed off beyond belief that they were even caught by the thing.  I think her and I might get along if I played my cards right.

The Chief mentioned going and finding his son Junior (poor guy). Apparently the guy was somewhere in land, checking out my hunting camp to see if it got wrecked in the earthquake.  To get on land and as far away from the ocean was my top priority at this point, so that will be a wonderful distraction to get me going. The only other option was sticking around and talking to the villagers to get to know them. You know, the ones standing around on swaying planks resting on deep cold water looking as if it was a normal thing. (Well, I guess it is for them… But still!).Yeah… definitely more inclined to go Junior hunting elsewhere.

 The chief assured me that my stuff would get moved into my little residence while I was off talking to the villagers or finding junior.

As I turned to basically make my mad dash away, the Chief called me back. “Rowan, here is your initial payment for the job. It’s not much but it’s enough to get you started.” Reaching out his hand he dropped a pouch full of zenny into my grasp.

With a quick nod of my head I tried to (failed to) nonchalantly run off to dry land. I tripped over the stairs on my way off, and I hoped none of the villagers saw that, as it wouldn’t exactly shine their ‘savior’ in a good light, especially because I basically ignored all of them to escape the queasy feeling in my gut.

They did, and I made a pretty bad impression.

Only after I was outside the Villages gates did I realize how stupid I was. I ran out here with barely anything, just what I had in my knapsack, and I was lucky with what I had in it. A whetstone and a hunting knife being my main two items. I had some supplementary supplies like spices and some very small meds, which is all fine and dandy.

But I left all my equipment in the chest getting unloaded.

Shit.

Well, I am off to a wonderful start. Though maybe if I managed to take down a monster with my bare hands and a couple of rocks it would get me a bit more recognition in the village. Yeah… that’s the plan, kill monsters, get carves, take them home and brag to whoever listens, perfect.

No one can say that Rowan Haidar doesn’t know what she’s doing, I am gonna rock this. I stopped and looked around the land before me, and wow, I really didn’t regret it, and the place was gorgeous. Standing up on these cliffs gave an amazing view of the surrounding area and I just got good vibes. The air was fresh if not a little salty and the island was bigger than I initially thought I could definitely see me spending most of my time out here, and quite happily for that matter.

 

* * *

 

 

 The terrain was different from what I was used to but that would just be part of the challenge. After looking around the area a bit and picking up some herbs nearby, I noticed the limited path choice between left and right, and honestly I didn’t want to lose the vantage point for a bit. I started heading forward. On the left path, that although was next to a cliff overlooking the ocean, helped me scope out exactly what this island looked like.

The next area I dipped into was a little valley with a small waterfall and stream running through it. But more importantly, it had a pack of Aptonoth grazing nearby. This was my chance. Crouching down with small carving blades on each hand, I slowly sauntered up to the largest one. Figuring that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it the right way. I tried to remember what my Mudariss taught me about them, which wasn’t all that much. Her focus was on actual threats, not little wee beasties that you can tame and use for transport.

I climbed up a nearby rock formation, trying to get close to the largest of the group without getting the herds attention. Because I didn’t have an actual weapon I was at a ridiculous disadvantage, not to mention the fact that I left the full Leather armor set Mudariss gave me with my equipment. I was basically going into battle naked and hoping to punch a monster to death.

I was just glad that we went over the newer hunting methods, it was what I was going to give a shot at. It wasn’t quite as popular in this section of the world yet, but ‘mounting’ monsters has become a standard tactic for those in the west to use.

Pulling out my carving knives I left them in my hands while I stayed crouched down, planning out how this _should_ work. I waited until the Aptonoth got closer to my position before lunging off the rock and aiming for its back. I flailed a bit before my knives grabbed into the herbivores flesh, cementing me in place. I felt the monster tense up to start shaking and quickly shimmied my body down to its neck.

As it started to buck I grabbed onto its horns to stay in place, waiting for it to tire. When it finally ceased it’s moments I felt like a shaken bottle of hunter cola. I started stabbing into the flesh repeatedly while I had the chance, as I knew it was going to start up its frantic movements again soon. It screeched in pain and I prayed that the sounds didn’t attract any other monsters attention, though it did scare the rest of the herd into fleeing away.

After much bucking and pulling it finally tumbled to the ground, flailing about in its final throws. Which is great you know, cause yay, I managed to kill a monster almost bare handed, but on the down side… I didn’t exactly dismount in time… so my leg was pinned under literal tons of writhing flesh. I’m not sure if others are aware, but normally that breaks bones, sometimes if you’re really stupid and unlucky it will break all of your bones.

I totally planned to be in the lighter section of the beast, so I got massive deep bruises and my entire leg torn up against the ground. Yeah it was definitely my plan all along. Well, maybe not, but at least I could still stand up and walk!

I grappled with the ground to tug myself out from underneath the things neck and gathered my bearings. I definitely had a serious case of whiplash, and I’m most definitely never going to attempt that again without the proper neck gear… or just gear in general. I pulled out some bandages and quickly wrapped up my leg, wanting to get this over with quick. The longer I took, the worse the Quality of Carve items would be.

Walking around the carcase I looked for the most prime cuts, trying to figure out what would be best to take with me, and what I needed to be able to make my life easier in the long run. I only managed to find three decent carves from the beast… which was lame to be honest, I was hoping for more. I managed to carve out two wonderful chunks of flesh that I knew were prime sections for cooking, and I managed to get a medium bone while I was at it. I quickly remembered the fact that I don’t exactly have bbq equipment, so I was literally walking around with raw flesh I couldn’t eat… not matter how choice that steak would be…mmm.

Anyways, I left the rest of it for the scavengers to poke at, and I wouldn’t doubt if it was already gone by the time I came back. I took a look around the new area and gathered what I could, keeping in mind what was here for the next time I came through. I managed to wrestle up a few berries, mushrooms, more herbs and yes, thank you god, honey. The Aptonoth herd from before ran by me again, but I wisely said “fuck it” and continued on.

There was no way I wanted to get back in a tussle like that so soon. I could have tried to drop kick some nearby Altaroth to see if I got anything from them, but if what I remembered from the small lesson I had on them, it was more trouble than it was worth.

There was only one other path to take from this area, as it seemed that the rest were blocked off by boulders from the earthquake. Hopefully the other path near the village would have more options, but till then, I would take what I could get. I needed to get my bearings for this island, as I knew I was going to be here a damn awful lot. Getting lost would just be embarrassing.

That, and I was still on the hunt for this Junior fellow, and it would be really inconvenient if he was trapped behind those boulders.

I hoisted my bag up over my shoulder with all of my new items, and I was definitely feeling the considerable weight change from all of the items, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to fit much more in my bag without breaking my back. I walked down the path looking out onto the ocean. The path narrowed and curved back and forth along the coast of the island before opening up into a small bay.

A cliff covered in stalagmites blocked out the sun, while still letting the strong rays bounce off gentle waves sectioned off from the rest of the ocean. A small dock housed a handmade boat that bounced gently in place, but that wasn’t what I was paying the most attention to. It was a camp, a large bed and draping colourful fabrics where everywhere. And I did mean everywhere. They were torn and tossed around, probably from the quake, which was unfortunate, ‘cause it looked like it would have been a beautiful place before the wreck.

A man was standing facing the wreckage, and honestly, from how tense his shoulders looked, happy would not be a word used to describe him. His arms were crossed and it looked like he didn’t realize I was there yet.

I walked up to him and cleared my throat before tapping his shoulder to get his attention. Now, I normally wouldn’t mention this, but I am slightly height challenged. And this to say that this guy is massive is being really nice. He pretty much towered over me, as I barely made it half way up his chest. I noticed that about most of the people in Moga though, they were all substantially taller than I was used to probably something to do with the air...

 So, although I was offended that he turned around and looked over my head for the person trying to get his attention, I wasn’t going to hold it against him. He finally clued in when I shifted a little bring his attention downwards. I awkwardly waved. “Hey… Junior right?”

“Ah, yeah I’m Juni—ahem, the Chief’s Son, you must be the new Hunter?”

“It’s Rowan.” I bluntly mentioned. If you can’t tell, I may or may not have some name issues… though Junior and his little mess up there pretty much spelled out that he had the same deal. “Your dad sent me to come fetch you, love your digs by the way, rubble is really in right now from what I’ve heard.” I tried to pun, I wasn’t sure why I found him here anyways.

“Oh, this is your base camp. Was... Is. Okay so I am still figuring that part out, but I was on patrol and decided to come and have a look-see. We figured you were going to need a hunting base, and this is where we left the tent and equipment.”

Well, shit. I guess it’s my digs then showing off the newest trend of trashed and mauled.

“We didn’t expect the quake to do such a number on it though, you can’t really hunt from this point as it is now. It’s gonna have to be fixed up first, I’ll head back to the village to get the ball rolling.” He explained before turning to leave.

A growl rang out through the area echoing of the walls and I grabbed my knives worried about a threat before noticing Junior. He was clutching his stomach bent over slightly and the grumbles could clearly be heard coming from his stomach. He looked at me with an embarrassed grin, “before I do, uh… do you got anything I could munch on? I’m so hungry I could eat an Aptonoth.”

I put down my rucksack before opening it up, and rustling through it and pulling out potential items. The only thing I really had that would count as food was the Raw Steaks, but ew. Junior had the opposite reaction from me though, and when I pulled them out, his face lit up before setting up some equipment quickly. “I can barbeque like a champ! Me plus BBQ equals BFF, can I please have those?” I nearly tossed them at him to get away from his grabbing hands and puppy dog eyes. “Thank you! Time to BBQ and chow down!”

A look of contentment crossed juniors face after he was all set up, and he looked to me smiling before skewering the first slab into place. “Thanks again Hunter,” “It’s Rowan.” “We’ll talk more in the village about your camp, I’ll think of some way to thank you for this though, scouts honor.”

“Yeah… I guess I’ll see you there.” I really didn’t want to head back to the village yet though, I only just got over my nausea. I didn’t really have all that much of an option though. Dejectedly I walked back out of base camp, dragging my feet along the way.

I gathered up a few more items in the area, trying to prolong my trip back, but eventually my rucksack (and back) could hold no more. I walked back to the village gates, kicking a rock back and forth before walking back through. It looked like there was two ways to the village, as it was situated not on the isle itself, but on a little isle section off of it. One way was a bridge connecting to the main land, which I too earlier in my mad dash, and the other appeared to be a system of caves leading to a larger land section of the village. I didn’t know those caves yet, so I took the bridge way.

As I entered the village, the villagers that I totally ignored before turned to me with raised eyebrows, and I looked down slightly embarrassed. It’s not my fault they decided building on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean was a good idea! Besides, I wasn’t going to be sticking around that long. The plan was kill the monster, and go home gloriously wealthy and actually start the rest of my carrier since I had a leg up. There really was no point in getting to know them.

 I made the attempt to stay close to the gate, as half of the town was still on land, and the rest was planks on water. The black smith and the stairs seemed safe for now. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep on these waves, I couldn’t the entire time I was on the boat. The only reason I slept at all, was when my body forced me to from exhaustion. I wasn’t a pretty sight on that boat, nor was I the best of company. It wasn’t something I was going to repeat if I didn’t have to, I planned on making “base camp” permanent camp.

Speaking of, apparently Junior took the back roads to get to the village, as he arrived here before me and was standing on top of a box in the middle of town, taking stock of what was around him and writing it on a note pad. I walked closer to the edge to talk to him and with a quiet ‘hey’ got his attention.

“Hey Hunter!” “Rowan” “Thanks for the meat earlier, I can tell that you and me are gonna get along.” Not if you keep calling me Hunter we’re not. “I’ve already got a list of all the materials we are gonna need for your base camp!” He proceeded to fill me in on exactly what needed to be done to the camp, and what we apparently needed.

Resources, like that explains a bunch. But let me dumb it down for ya, just because it was ridiculous. I kill monsters or pick up some wicked sweet items, and congrats, they’re resources now. Problem solved.

I nodded my head in understanding, trying to get out of the conversation quick enough to actually go and get some resources. I didn’t know the island well, and night time was only a short ways away, junior even warned that the monsters were worse at night, and that wasn’t something I wanted to tango with right now. Just before I turned to run down the stairs and get my equipment Junior called me back.

“I almost forgot, this is for you! I made you a BBQ spit, so you can cook your own raw meat and stay full while out hunting.” Oh… now I felt like an ass, this was actually really useful and thoughtful. “Hey if you need any tips on how to do it, I’m your guy!” he gestured proudly to his chest with a grin.

I was kind of astounded. Like sure, I gave the guy some meat, but this was handmade and it took time to make. It was well made, sturdy and easy to set up, there was also small carvings in the handle depicting little beasts and herbs.  This was definitely not an even trade, I remember how much something like this could cost you back in Loc Lac, and two slabs of meat was never going to cover it.

I almost handed it back to him, but he looked so cheerful and proud of his work. With a heavy sigh I gave up and accepted the gift.  With a small sigh I smiled and packed it away before looking back to Junior. “Yeah, I might need some help on that, I haven’t used one like this before, and I’ll definitely need an expert to show me the ropes. If I bring you some more meat, think you can give me a demonstration ‘Chief’s Son’?”

I crossed my arms and smiled at him as his face lit up and he nodded furiously. Apparently he didn’t expect me to use his title like that. I figured I’d throw him a bone this time. Speaking of, apparently I forgot we weren’t the only ones on the island, and I noticed a few gossip mongers. They all looked pretty happy that I was taking initiative with Junior, almost relieved even.

With a sigh I realized that if I wanted to get through this in one piece, I was going to have to actually put in an effort with the rest of the town. I looked up at the sky once more, it was just a few hours till sunset, and I wouldn’t be able to get much hunting in at all. I figured I could put the remaining light to good use, if not the first thing I wanted to do with it. I walked over to shop owner next to the black smith and started a conversation.

The excitability rolling off of her wasn’t something I expected, but from what I could tell from the town, enthusiasm is something they had in spades. It wasn’t something I expected from a town plagued by earthquakes.

 But I might as well get used to it though, it was going to become my home for the next while.

**Author's Note:**

> Maadar = Mom  
> Mudariss = Teacher  
> Haidar = a variation of Haydar, yet still retains the meaning of Lion.


End file.
